Check out this 8-step guide to see how you can increase your productivity by skipping slow application redeploys and by implementing application profiling, as you code! Brought to you in partnership with ZeroTurnaround.

It’s that time again. The web is buzzing with news of the latest
Android version and the latest mobile device in the Nexus family – the
LG Nexus 5. Sporting a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 CPU and 2GB of RAM,
coupled with a 1080p display, one can safely say that the Nexus 5 will
bring out the best that Android has to offer. But what about the latest
version of Android? We have not heard a great deal of what to expect
with Android KitKat, everything seems to be kept under wraps. The
following is a small list of features of what we hope to get from the
next version of Android:

Optimizations for lower end devices - Android fragmentation is a well known problem, and Google is
doing its best to keep it at a minimum. When Ice Cream Sandwich was
announced, the Android community was hoping that several flagship phones
of large companies would be making the jump to the latest and greatest.
Looking back now, this was not the case, even when it came to Verizon’s
Galaxy Nexus. Carriers play a large role when it comes to updates,
which leaves most devices running older versions of Android, despite
being able to run the latest version efficiently. We can look to HTC’s
Desire HD (also known as the Inspire 4G) as an example. HTC said
that this device will eventually be running ICS, but later went back
and left their year-old flagship phone running Gingerbread. Hopefully,
Android KitKat will be the solution to Android’s fragmentation problem –
a version of Android that is able to run on single core processors with
limited RAM without a hitch, bringing old devices in line with more
recent ones. Don’t get your hopes up too much though, carriers are still
in control of updates, and supporting two year old devices is not
likely to happen.

A cloud-based backup solution - Wouldn’t it be great if our application data was saved
somewhere secure on the web without fear of losing it after performing a
factory reset, or even changing phones? This is something that the
Android community has been yearning for, for quite a while. Android
users look to applications such as Titanium Backup,
which is able to create a backup copy of your application data, as long
as your device is rooted. Not an ideal solution for those who are not
willing to root their devices.

Skin customization - Many Android users decide to buy a phone based on a balance
between price and hardware, but what about those who look to a device’s
software as well? The open source nature of Android is both a blessing
and a curse. Features are introduced much more rapidly than they would
be if Android were closed. However, you also get a number of variations
of the same operating system running different skins. It is often
mentioned that Samsung’s Touchwiz is much closer to Gingerbread than it
is to the Holo colourscheme, the latter of which is present across all
devices running ICS or above. It is one reason why some may choose to
purchase a different device rather than a Samsung. The same could be
said for LG devices, HTC devices, Motorola, pretty much most major OEMs.
In order to completely reskin their devices, Android users end up
rooting their devices and flashing new ROMs which come with their own
set of problems. One can understand why some may choose to endure a
not-so-pretty skin in favour of reliability and security. A rumour
describing Google’s own launcher has surfaced,
titled the “Google Experience”. Hopefully Android KitKat will allow
users to download different OEM skins and apply them to their device
without fear of losing their data in the flashing process. It would be
great to have, say, a Samsung device running on stock Android. This is
partly the reason why Google Editions of the Samsung Galaxy S4 and the
HTC One were introduced, but it’s not enough.

Lock screen notifications - The Moto X has a very nifty feature – Active Notifications. It
allows users to access applications for which there are notifications
immediately from the lock screen. There are applications which do this
already but having it baked into the core operating system would be a
welcome addition. Perhaps this can then be extended to offer an API for
developers to let them run wild with how they display notifications.

Multiwindow - One core feature that has been introduced in a number of OEM
roms and even custom ones is to have multiple applications open at the
same time in multiple windows. So many ROMs have this feature that it
seems only natural to introduce into the core operating system.

Reliable rumors are hinting that Android KitKat will be announced on the 31st of October, along with the Nexus 5.

It’s an exciting time to be both an Android user and a developer.
Google seems to be listening to what the community wants, so some of the
above features might actually make it into the next Android iteration.
Let us know what you think should be introduced in KitKat or in the
following versions of Android.

The Java Zone is brought to you in partnership with ZeroTurnaround. Check out this 8-step guide to see how you can increase your productivity by skipping slow application redeploys and by implementing application profiling, as you code!